“The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”
Word of the Week – April 16, 2022
Noetic [no-ED-ik]
Adjective
Greek, 17th century
(Formal) Relating to mental activity or the intellect. Stems from the Greek “noētikos,” from “noētos,” meaning “intellectual”, which comes from “noein,” meaning “perceive.” The Institute of Noetic Sciences is a nonprofit research center in Petaluma, California. Former astronaut Edgar Mitchell co-founded the center in 1973 after claiming he entered a meditative trance upon his return to Earth after the Apollo 14 moon landing. He also said he conducted ESP experiments with earthbound friends during spaceflight. The institute conducts research on topics like consciousness-based healthcare, spontaneous remission, survival of consciousness after bodily death, psychokinesis, and alternative healing practices.
Example: I normally want to deal only with people who express a noetic sense of confidence.
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Most Hypocritical Quote of the Week – April 16, 2022
“I’d look them in the eye and tell them, ‘I love you.’”
Former Vice President Mike Pence, in a speech at the University of Virginia
During a Q&A session after the speech, a student asked, “I’m just wondering if one of your children came out to you as gay, how would you respond? What would you tell them?”
After the audience applauded his response, Pence added, “Let me say on this issue … if we got to know each other, you’d know the Pences love everybody. We treat everybody the way we want to be treated.
However, he went on to say, “But on this issue, and it’s frankly something that when the Obergefell decision was made which legalized same-sex marriage in America, the Supreme Court, Justice [Anthony] Kennedy wrote at the end, that this decision will likely create an intersection and tension between people in same-sex relationships and people in the exercise of their religious liberty.”
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Worst Quotes of the Week – April 16, 2022
“What we have is kids not only being indoctrinated but groomed, in a very real sense, by people who are, whether they know it or not, sexual predators. Are they abusing the kids physically? No, I don’t think so. But they are abusing them mentally and using sex to do so.”
David Mamet, offering his views on the “Don’t Say Gay” issue in an interview with Fox News
Mamet added, “This has always been the problem with education. Teachers are inclined, particularly men because men are predators, to pedophilia.”
“I had to do something to gain his respect.”
Dustin Thompson, a January 6 rioter, during testimony about his actions
Thompson said he believed Trump sent him to attack on U.S. Capitol and thwart certification of the 2020 elections. He also stated that he had been laid off from his job as an exterminator at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and – feeling “isolated” and “stuck at home” – eventually “fell down the rabbit hole” of online conspiracy theories.
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Best Quote of the Week – April 16, 2022
“Ms. Herrera’s case is a terrific example of exactly what we expect to happen. You can’t continue to say over and over again that abortion is murder and not expect that police and prosecutors are going to not treat it as murder.”
Lynn Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women
Lizelle Herrera, a 26-year-old South Texas woman, was arrested and jailed recently over a self-induced abortion just months after the state banned most abortions. The murder charge has been dropped, but abortion rights advocates are still concerned about increasing attacks against abortion in judicial circles.
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Retro Quote – Ingmar Bergman
“I am living permanently in my dream, from which I make brief forays into reality.”
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Word of the Week – April 9, 2022
Noumenon
Noun
Greek, 18th century
A thing as it is in itself, as distinct from a thing as it is knowable by the senses through phenomenal attributes (in Kantian philosophy). “Noumenon” is based on the Greek “νοούμενον,” meaning “something that is conceived with the mind.” This was in direct contrast to “phenomenon,” which came from the Greek “φαινόμενον,” meaning “that which appears visibly.”
German philosopher Immanuel Kant coined the word “noumenon” (and the plural “noumena”) in 1783 in an effort to describe things occurring outside of appearances visible to human beings. “Noumenon” describes a transcendental thing too great to be fully conceived with limited human capacities. Kant used the word in direct contrast to “phenomenon,” which is a fact or event perceptible to humans through their senses.
Example: My unique views on life manifest themselves as the noumenon of my stories.
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Chief Writing Wolf 